MountainTrue Raleigh Report
The MountainTrue Raleigh Report covers environmental politics and policy, with a focus on the issues that affect Western North Carolina. Sign up to get the Raleigh Report delivered to your inbox.
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MT Raleigh Report — A State Budget. Finally.
After weeks away from Raleigh and countless promises about when a new state budget will be approved, lawmakers finally passed a new two-year budget last week. Here’s our take on good and bad in the spending plan that has taken the legislature all summer and then some...
MT Raleigh Report — The Beginning of the End of the 2023 Session
The arrival of spring means that things are heating up in Raleigh, as the General Assembly begins what lawmakers hope will be the beginning of the end of the 2023 legislative session. Legislators have already cleared several important hurdles on their way to...
MT Raleigh Report – Going Back to Raleigh
Some of MountainTrue’s most important work is accomplished Raleigh, where we maintain a year-round advocacy effort aimed at protecting and preserving Western North Carolina’s natural resources. As part of this effort, five MountainTrue staff traveled to the North...
Raleigh Report: The 2023 Session Kicks Off
While the North Carolina General Assembly officially kicked off its 2023 session with lots of pomp and circumstance earlier this month, January 25th marked the first real working day of the new legislative session. Beginning on that day and every week thereafter —...
2023 Western North Carolina Conservation Legislative Priorities
Protect Public Health – and the Jobs and Businesses that Rely on Clean Water A recent report conducted by economists at Western Carolina University commissioned by the French Broad River Partnership found the total economic impact of the French Broad River and its...
Raleigh Report: Reviewing the Primaries and Looking Ahead to the Budget
Congratulations to all of us for getting through a particularly energetic and crowded primary election season. In this update, we will get you up to speed (quickly) about who in WNC won and lost on Tuesday, then turn our attention to the North Carolina General Assembly, which began its so-called “short session” on May 18.
Raleigh Report: With District Maps in Place, We Preview the Primary Election
Now that the months-long political mud wrestling match known as redistricting is over, it’s a good time to take a look at what the state’s new legislative and congressional maps mean for Western North Carolina. We won’t go over the legislature’s – and the courts’ – torturous path to finalizing districts maps. Suffice to say that the process reached its inglorious end with decisions by both the NC and US Supreme Courts. The House and Senate maps will remain in place for a decade, but the congressional map will be redrawn next year because it was imposed by a court rather than adopted by the legislature.
MountainTrue Wins Historic Investments for WNC
As you may know, lawmakers at the North Carolina General Assembly finally approved a budget in November after months of wrangling among themselves as well as with Governor Cooper. The new spending plan represents the first full budget approved by the legislature and...
Houston, We Have a Budget
After almost a full calendar year in session (to say nothing of a three-year delay since the last budget was approved) the North Carolina General Assembly has approved — and Governor Cooper has signed — a complete spending state plan, which now totals more than $25 billion annually.
‘Energy Solutions’ Bill Sets North Carolina on Path to Carbon Neutrality by 2050
On Wednesday, October 13, Governor Roy Cooper signed a bill called “Energy Solution for North Carolina” or HB 951. Standing behind a podium bearing the words Securing Our Clean Energy Future, Cooper confidently asserted “ … today I will sign a historic bill that gives us an extraordinary new tool in our fight against climate change. Today, North Carolina moves strongly into a reliable and affordable clean energy future.”
Clearly, this wasn’t the same HB 951 that had been negotiated behind closed doors by House Republicans, Duke Energy, and other industry groups and passed by the House on a 57-49 vote in July.